Émile Henry Muselier (Marseilles, 17 April 1882 – Toulon, 2 September 1965) was a French admiral who led the Free French Naval Forces (Forces navales françaises libres, or FNFL) during World War II. He was responsible for the idea of distinguishing his fleet from that of Vichy France by adopting the Cross of Lorraine, which later became the emblem of all of the Free French. After entering the French Naval Academy (École Navale) in 1899, he embarked on a brilliant and eventful military career. He ran unsuccessfully in the legislative elections of 1946 as vice-president of the Rally of Republican Lefts (Rassemblement des gauches républicaines) and then entered private life as a consulting engineer before his retirement in 1960. He is buried in the cemetery of St. Pierre, at Marseilles. Early career Muselier's career started with a campaign in the Far East, several others in the Adriatic, one in Albania, which overlapped with a stay in Toulon. During World War I he also fought at the Yser in Belgium as the head of a troop of marine fusiliers. Muselier received his first real command, of the aviso Scape, in April 1918. For his service in World War I, Muselier was awarded the Navy Cross. This was followed by the command of the destroyer Ouragan in 1925, that of armoured cruiser Ernest Renan in 1927, then battleship Voltaire in 1930, and Bretagne in 1931. In 1933, Muselier, by then promoted to rear-admiral, became Major-General of the port of Sidi-Abdalah in Tunisia, where he wrote social commentaries such as "La Mie de Pain" ("the breadcrumb"). In 1938, he received command of the Navy and the defence sector of the city of Marseilles. Muselier had previously been attached to the cabinets of Painlevé and Clemenceau, then became chief of staff of the naval delegation to Germany. On 10 October 1939, Muselier was promoted to vice-admiral by Admiral Darlan, himself a former fellow student of the École Navale. Darlan retracted the promotion as of 21 November, following libelous charges ranged against Muselier. A similar incident occurred when Muselier was under the orders of General de Gaulle, whom he had rejoined as of 30 June 1940. He was, however, quickly cleared of the suspicions of treason which the British levelled at him on the base of false documents; this prompted the British Government to apologise. Role in Free French On 1 July 1940, General de